BASILIQUE NOTRE-DAME-DE-MARCEILLE
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This church, erected on the top of a hill overlooking Limoux, is accessible by a paved "sacred way".
Unknown, this church was erected on the top of a hill overlooking Limoux, on the site of a chapel first mentioned in 1137. Accessible by a paved "sacred way", all sorts of beliefs surround it. The legend speaks of a ploughman who saw his oxen refusing to advance in his field and then began to dig the earth in this precise place. He discovered in the ground a statue of the Virgin Mary with the Baby Jesus. Three times he took her home, and each time she returned without explanation to the site where he had found her. Legend has it that it was on this very spot that the Blessed Virgin expressed the wish to be prayed to. This led to the construction of the first Romanesque chapel, which was replaced in the 14th century by a large church. It is also stated that the basilica would be closely linked to the mysterious history of Rennes-le-Château and Rennes-les-Bains. A miraculous spring of water at the foot of the building, which would cure eye diseases, and a Black Virgin attract many pilgrims, especially on September 8. The five-bay nave is 29 m long and 17 m wide, and can accommodate up to 2,000 worshippers. In 2007, the statue of the Black Madonna was savagely beheaded. It is a replica which is in the choir of the chapel surrounded by a multitude of ex-voto. The site, a relay for pilgrims on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, was classified as a Historical Monument in the 1940s.
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